too 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


The    Works  of 
PHILLIPS  BROOKS 


Influence  of  Jesus,          .         .         $1-25 

Lectures  on  Preaching,           .  1.50 

Sermons,          ....  1.75 

Sermons.     Second  series,        .  1.75 
Sermons     preached     in     English 

Churches,           .         .         .  1.75 

Twenty  Sermons.     Fourth  series,  1.75 

Tolerance,       ..        .        .        .  .75 

A  Christmas  Sermon,      .         .  .25 

An  Easter  Sermon,          .         .  .25 

A  Christmas  Carol.     Illustrated,  i.oo 
O  Little  Town  of  Bethlehem  ! 
Christmas  Carol.     Beautifully 

Illustrated,  4to,         .         .  .75 

Baptism  and   Confirmation,     .  .10 


Published  by  E.  P.  Dutton  &  Co. 


Mailed  to  any  address,  postage  paid,  on  receipt 
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y.  G.  CUPPLES, 

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250  Boylston  Street^ 

BOSTON. 


A  CORNER  OF  TRINITY 


PHILLIPS    BROOKS 


NEWELL  DUNBAR 

m 


WITH  VIKWS  OF  TRINITY  CHURCH. 


Boston 
J.  G.  CUPPLKS,  PUBLISHER 

250  HOYLSTON  STREKT 


Copyright,  1891, 
By  J.  G.  CUPPLBS. 

All  rights  reserved. 


_--  CTBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CAUFO: 
SANTA  BARDARA 


To     the     Admirers     of 

Crue  jttatt^ooD 

this   little   volume    (much    too    has- 
tily  prepared)   is  lovingly 
dedicated     by 
the  Author 


CONTENTS. 

PERSONALITY 

BIOGRAPHICAL 

THE  PREACHER 

THE  AUTHOR  

WHAT  HE  STANDS  FOR  TODAY  IN  THE 
"PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 
EN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OP  AMER- 
ICA" ....  . 


PACK 
3 

23 
43 

63 


81 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


TRINITY  CHURCH  TOWER  .  .  Cover 
A  CORNER  OF  TRINITY  .  Frontispiece 
PORTRAIT  OP  PHILLIPS  BROOKS  Title-page 
TRINITY  CHURCH,  EXTERIOR  Facing- p.  36 
TRINITY  CHURCH,  INTERIOR  "  "  54 


Together  -with    HEAD   and 
TAIL  PIECES. 


PERSONALITY. 


I. 

PERSONALITY. 

man  (or  woman)  of 
this  world  has  been  spoilt 
by  the  world.  He  has 
given  himself  over  to  standards  and 
methods  of  which  the  sum  and  sub- 
stance are  selfishness,  and  has  al- 
lowed himself  to  grow  —  to  state  the 
plain  truth — into  a  repulsive  mon- 
strosity. Himself  he  regards  in  the 
light  of  all  but  a  deity  to  be  wor- 
shiped ;  upon  his  fellows  he  looks 
about  to  see  how  best  he  can  make 
use  of  them.  He  has  drifted  far  from 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


and  reversed  the  healthy  instincts  of 
his  childhood  and  of  Nature.  The 
scholar  (signifying  by  that  terra  the 
man  or  woman,  who  is  not  merely 
a  receptacle  for  facts,  but  who  has 
thought  and  aspired  in  those  broader 
and  deeper  and  more  life-giving,  if 
less  exact,  departments  of  intellect- 
ual endeavor  —  the  theologies,  the 
philosophies,  the  poesies,  the  aesthet- 
ics, of  the  intellectual  curriculum  —  of 
which  the  prerogative  is  that  they 
tend  to  decipher  the  meaning  of 
life  and  to  give  it  an  unrest,  a 
self-dissatisfaction,  a  distinctively 
human  charm,  and  a  worthy  aim) 
has  at  least  considered  the  "what 
ought  to  be,"  as  well  as  the  "  what 
is."  He  feels  its  superiority. 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


5 


When,  as  occasionally  happens,  he 
is  true  to  his  teaching,  and  is 
besides,  in  addition  to  being  a 
scholar,  a  man  of  strong  will  and 
of  virile  powers,  making  up 
his  mind  he  will  never  desert  that 
which  he  knows  in  his  heart  to  be 
the  higher  for  what  he  equally  by 
intuition  knows  is  the  lower,  he 
achieves  some  appreciable  measure 
of  success  in  embodying  the  ideal 
in  his  own  life,  and  in  causing  it 
to  be  embodied  in  the  life  about 
him.  Such  men  constitute  the 
flower  of  our  race.  And  it  is,  in 
the  first  place,  to  be  noted  of  them, 
that  they  represent  normal  and  con- 
sistent growths  of  humanity,  are 
not  vitiated  or  warped,  but  such  as 


6  PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 

Nature  intended  human  nature  to 
be ;  the  man  not  contradicting  the 
boy,  but  continuing  him  —  contain- 
ing the  boy  —  the  boy  grown  up  — 
a  bigger  boy  —  combining  all  the 
youth's  simple,  true,  generous  in- 
stincts, and  all-embracing  sympathies 
and  affections,  with  the  man's  added 
stature,  strength,  polish,  knowledge, 
culture,  and  wisdom.  Says  Novalis : 
"  Tugend  ist  die  Prosa,  Unschuld 
die  Poesie" 

Such  a  man  eminently  is  Phillips 
Brooks.  Those  who  have  had  the 
privilege  of  knowing  him  intimately 
have  often  styled  him  a  "  big  boy." 
The  scholar,  the  high-bred  gentle- 
man, the  man  of  weight  and  of 
influence  upon  the  community  about 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


him,   if  not,   indeed,   in   the  world; 

but   beneath   all  simple,    unaffected, 

i 
modest,    hopeful,    trustful,    unselfish 

and  well-wishing.  It  needs  but  to 
see  him  upon  the  tennis-ground  with 
children,  or  in  his  church  on  a 
"  children's  day,"  to  recognize  the 
peculiar  aptness  of  the  epithet 
alluded  to  above.  Its  truthfulness 
no  doubt  accounts  in  large  measure 
for  his  influence  with  the  young, 
especially  with  young  men,  it  being 
a  notorious  fact  that  amongst 
preachers  he  is  the  darling  of  Amer- 
ican universities.  Those  who  have 
beheld  that  vast  surpliced  frame  in 
Trinity  Church  chancel  drop  upon 
its  knees  and  lift  up  its  voice  in 
all  the  artless  effusion  of  unques- 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS, 


tioning  prayer,  have  the  key  to  the 
man.  There  is  nothing  studied,  or 
affected,  or  done  for  effect,  or 
sham,  about  him.  He  is  natural 
and  genuine,  and  fundamental  (in 
the  sense  of  clinging  to  and  em- 
bodying the  great  underlying  facts 
—  the  first  principles — of  life  and 
of  our  common  human  nature),  and 
true.  That  here  is  a  genuine  man, 
human  through  and  through,  and 
with  all  his  elegance  and  cultivation 
at  heart  one  with  humanity,  one 
with  the  people,  no  one  could  ques- 
tion after  reading  his  sermon  preached 
in  the  church  of  the  Holy  Trinity, 
Philadelphia,  after  the  assassination 
of  President  Lincoln  —  it  is  so 
gloriously  adequate  to  its  high  theme. 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


No  one  could  so  speak,  no  one 
could  so  appreciate  the  simple 
grandeur  of  character  of  that  remark- 
able man,  and  not  be  himself  com- 
pact of  true  manhood. 

In  his  Boston  Latin  School  oration, 
he  praises  the  school  because  its 
teaching  has  never  been  "the  privi- 
lege of  an  aristocratic  class,  but  the 
portion  of  any  boy  in  town  who  had 
the  soul  to  desire  it  and  the  brain 
to  appropriate  it."  A  fact  that  in- 
dubitably attests  the  authenticity  of 
his  metal  is  that,  whenever  he 
preaches  or  speaks  to  what  might 
be  termed  the  populace,  the  populace 
eagerly  listen  to  him.  Just  as  the 
gipsies  and  poachers  were  Charles 
Kingsley's  friends,  styling  him 


I0  PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 

their  "priest-king,"  the  lower  ranks 
of  American  society  flock  to  hear 
Phillips  Brooks,  whenever  they  get 
the  chance,  equally  with  the  more 
critical  classes.  They  seem  to  be 
equally  abject  subjects  of  his  spell : 
and  as  between  reality  and  sham 
the  populace  in  any  country  possess 
a  very  keen  vision,  that  in  the  long 
run  nothing  spurious  cheats.  His 
"  eye  is  single," — one  evidence  of  this 
trait  being  his  deliberate  determina- 
tion to  lead  a  celibate  life,  in  order 
to  devote  himself  the  more  com- 
pletely  to  his  sacred  calling.  Mr. 
Drummond,  in  one  of  his  recent 
books,  speaks  of  the  fine  opportunity 
afforded  by  the  Christian  ministry 
for  devoting  one's  self  to  a  high  ideal, 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


•undistracted  by  the  disturbing  ele- 
ment of  money,  which  is  so  potent 
a  factor  in  most  other  callings. 
Narrowness  of  means,  indeed, 
Bishop  Brooks  has  been  spared  ;  but 
no  one  can  doubt  it  would  have 
made  no  difference  to  his  zeal,  what- 
ever it  might  have  done  to  his  effect- 
iveness, if  he  had  not  been  ;  cer- 
tainly in  choosing  his  profession  he 
was  not  actuated  by  mercenary 
motives. 

To  have  his  name  in  the  mouths 
of  the  community,  and  to  have  the 
community's  gratitude  express  itself 
in  gifts,  have  fallen  to  him  naturally  ; 
but  they  have  made  no  difference 
in  the  man. 

As   it    happens   to    almost   every 


12  PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 

one  in  Boston,  at  one  time  or  another, 
to  meet  him  with  his  burly  frame 
and  big  eloquent  eye  upon  the 
streets,  where  he  may  be  seen  hustled 
like  any  ordinary  mortal  by  hack- 
men  and  porters,  who  are  apparently 
perfectly  unconcerned  and  uncon- 
scious that  they  are  rubbing  elbows 
with  a  great  man  (or,  perhaps,  even 
exhibit  a  somewhat  overdone  assump- 
tion and  bravado  of  ignorance  or  of 
self-assertion,  as  is  wont  to  be  the 
way  with  the  low-class  American)  ; 
or  running  across  him  occasionally 
in  a  book-shop,  with  his  face  buried 
in  a  volume  in  rapt  and  scholarly 
abstraction  ;  or  finding  him  a  near 
neighbor  in  the  audience  at  some 
public  place  of  amusement,  or  listen- 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


ing  with  fine  modesty  in  the  audience 
or  congregation  to  the  eloquence  of 
another — even  the  most  careless 
observer  may  notice  in  him  a  certain 
noble  intentness  of  countenance,  and 
a  sober  restriction  of  regard,  that 
bespeak  the  genuine  unspoilt  nature, 
self-centred  in  the  sense  of  being 
loyally  wedded  to  and  humbly  de- 
pendent upon  the  revelation  of  the 
highest  within. 

Very  characteristic  of  the  man  was 
a  little  scene  the  writer  remembers 
to  have  witnessed,  one  evening  in 
early  summer,  on  the  Commonwealth 
Avenue  mall  in  Boston.  The  great 
preacher  was  sauntering  down  the 
walk  in  earnest  converse  with  a 
friend,  or  at  least  acquaintance, 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


whose  hand  he  held  in  his,  and  was 
affectionately  swinging  as  he  talked 
—  just  as  children  swing  hands  and 
talk.  His  companion,  who  was 
known  to  the  writer  as  a  man  noto- 
riously not  all  unworldly  and  a  saint, 
though  of  average  size,  looked  a  mere 
boy  beside  his  own  heroic  proportions. 
Brooks  was  expostulating  with  him 
in  regard  to  some  point  on  which  he 
evidently  wished  to  change  him,  and 
his  big,  convincing,  winning,  "Non- 
sense —  nonsense,  Edward  —  put  it 
aside — you  know  it  is  not  so," 
sounded  very  hard  to  resist.  It  is 
not  always  argument  with  him,  but 
oftentimes  the  pressure  brought  to 
bear  of  a  well-nigh  irresistible  mag- 
netism and  potent  personality. 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


It  is  amusingly  told  of  him  (and 
it  illustrates  the  modesty  of  the  man) 
by  one  of  his  clergy,  who  is  rector 
of  a  suburban  Boston  parish,  and  in 
whose  church  he  frequently  preaches 
—  on  which  occasions  the  pews  over- 
flow, settees  are  placed  in  the  aisles, 
and  all  the  available  interstices  are 
occupied  by  people  standing  —  that 
always,  after  the  service,  he  says, 
with  the  utmost  good  faith,  "  Grey, 
what  a  splendid  congregation  you 
have  !  "  It  apparently  never  enters 
his  head  to  imagine  that  that  is  not 
the  usual  condition  of  things  in  that 
church,  when  preachings  are  afoot. 

Another  story  told  of  him  by  his 
friend  Archdeacon  Farrar  illustrates 
the  same  trait.  When  wonder  was 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


expressed,  during  one  of  his  English 
visits,  by  some  of  his  English  friends, 
at  the  generous,  if  unaccepted,  offer 
made  to  him  by  certain  members  of 
his  congregation  at  home,  to  send 
him  abroad  for  a  year,  paying  all 
his  expenses  and  those  of  a  substi- 
tute during  his  absence,  he  answered 
laughing,  "  Oh,  they  were  tired  of 
me,  and  wanted  a  change  !  " 

Any  reference  to  the  personality 
of  Phillips  Brooks  would  be  incom- 
plete without  some  allusion  to 
his  physique.  To  be  not  only  big 
morally  and  intellectually,  but  well- 
nigh  herculean  bodily,  constitutes  a 
sort  and  condition  of  man  that  is 
eminently  adapted  for  reaching  all 
classes  in  the  community  —  both 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


those  who  appreciate  the  higher  spirit- 
ual graces,  those  who  delight  mainly 
in    hard-headedness,    and   lastly   the 
more  purely  animal,  upon  whose  low- 
ness  of  grade  moral  and  mental  adorn- 
ments are  quite    thrown   away,    but 
who  recognize  and  respect  good  tan- 
gible thews  and  bulk  when  they  see 
them.     When  the  apostle   of    mercy 
and  forbearance  comes,  it  is  well  for 
him  to  come,  if   possible,    equipped 
in  this    Milonian    fashion:    for    one 
thing,  he  can  scarcely  then  be   sus- 
pected of  preaching  what  he  practices 
from  necessity  and  from  motives  of 
interest. 

Like  all  thoroughly  healthy 
natures,  Phillips  Brooks  at  once 
detects  and  hates  flattery.  Intelli- 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


gent  appreciation  is  welcome  to  him, 
as  it  must  be  to  every  genuine  man. 
The  outside  world  exists  for  him  as 
something  to  be  benefited  :  for  its 
adulation  he  does  not  seem  to  care, 
preferring  for  society  that  of  his  inti- 
mate friends,  with  whom  he  is  sun- 
shine itself.  Of  himself  he  speaks 
little.  His  sense  of  humor  is  strong, 
as  any  one  for  instance  may  see  by 
reading  the  delicious  oration  delivered 
at  the  celebration  of  the  two-hundred- 
and-fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  found- 
ing of  the  Boston  Latin  School,  which 
has  already  been  referred  to.  Nobody 
seems  to  know  when  he  does  his 
work  :  he  is  always  accessible  and- 
disengaged  in  the  morning.  He  is 
very  optimistic,  believing  in  the 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


intrinsic  goodness  of  human  nature. 
He  thinks  that  the  world  makes 
steady  progress  in  accordance  with  a 
fixed  law.  His  principal  regret  is 
that  he  cannot  live  longer,  since  he 
is  convinced  that  at  about  the  time 
when  the  next  generation  shall  have 
fairly  taken  its  place  upon  the  scene 
and  settled  down  to  work,  there  will 
occur  a  sudden  blossoming  out  in  the 
condition  of  humanity  such  as  it  has 
never  before  beheld. 

How  shall  the  personality  of 
Phillips  Brooks  be  summed  up  ? 
Archdeacon  Farrar  calls  him  "  every 
inch  a  man."  To  the  writer  recur 
the  words  Brooks  himself  spoke  of 
Lincoln  (so  different  from  himself 
till  you  get  down  to  the  very  core 


2O  PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 

of  the  two  men)  —  "  the  greatness 
of  real  goodness,  and  the  goodness 
of  real  greatness." 


BIOGRAPHICAL. 


II. 

BIOGRAPHICAL. 

THE  Right  Reverend  Phillips 
Brooks,  S.  T.  D.,  Bishop  of 
Massachusetts,  and  today  doubt- 
less the  greatest  preacher  in 
America  or  in  England,  if  not  of 
Protestantism  and  of  the  world, 
was  born  in  Boston,  December  13, 
1835,  and  is  consequently  now  in 
his  fifty-sixth  year  He  is  in  the 
full  vigor  of  a  regally-endowed 
manhood,  and  likely  to  be  able  to 
devote  many  years  to  come  to  the 
causes  of  religion  and  of  education, 


24  PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 

which  he  has  held  so  dear.  The 
original  home  of  his  family  was 
North  Andover.  That  his  parents 
were  devoted  to  Christianity,  appears 
from  the  fact  that  of  their  six 
sons  four,  including  him,  became 
Christian  ministers.  When  he  was 
a  boy,  the  family  attended  St. 
Paul's  Church,  in  Boston,  of  which 
the  rector  was  that  admirable  pulpit- 
orator,  the  Rev.  Alexander  Hamil- 
ton Vinton,  whose  polished  elo- 
quence, it  is  not  unnatural  to 
suppose,  may  have  had  consider- 
able influence  in  arousing  in  young 
Brooks's  heart  that  predominant 
ideal  which  so  often  makes  the 
boy  in  a  great  sense  father  of  the 
man.  Dr.  Vinton  afterwards  for 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS.  2$ 

a  second  time,  as  will  be  seen  later, 
exerted  a  beneficent  influence  upon 
his  young  friend,  and  at  a  critical 
point  in  his  life.  Dr.  Vinton, 
by  the  way,  preached  the  con- 
secration-sermon at  the  consecra- 
tion of  the  new  Trinity  Church, 
Boston. 

Young  Brooks  fitted  for  college 
at  the  Boston  Latin  School,  and 
in  1851  was  admitted  to  Harvard 
University,  by  which  famous  in- 
stitution he  was  duly  graduated  in 
1855,  being  then  in  his  nineteenth 
year. 

It  is  on  record  that  at  about  the 
time  of  his  graduation  —  that  criti- 
cal period  in  the  lives  of  educated 
youth  —  he  was  in  doubt  (as  so 


26  PHILLIPS  BROOKS, 

many  such  young  men  are)  what 
profession  to  adopt.  When  still  a 
senior  he  consulted  the  President 
of  his  University  on  the  point,  and 
that  learned  gentleman,  with  all 
the  omniscient  insight  of  a  very 
wise  man,  said:  "In  deciding  the 
difficult  question  of  a  choice  of  pro- 
fession, I  think,  we  may  always  be 
helped  towards  a  solution  of  the 
problem  by  eliminating,  in  the  first 
place,  the  impossible  vocations. 
This  saves  much  trouble  and  loss 
of  time,  as  it  at  once  narrows  the 
field,  and  restricts  the  mind  to 
fewer  points,  from  which  to  make 
its  selection.  Now,  in  your  case, 
for  instance,  owing  to  the  im- 
pediment in  your  speech,  you  could 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


never  be  a  preacher,  and  we  may 
as  well  therefore  at  the  outset  lay 
aside  all  thought  of  the  ministry." 
Just  what  profession  collegiate  in- 
fallibility  recommended  its  young 
applicant  for  advice  to  adopt,  need 
not  be  recalled  here :  the  irony  of 
subsequent  events  has  extracted 
the  interest  from  the  rest  of  the 
little  oration.  The  advice  given 
was  no  doubt  sound,  judging  from 
the  standpoint  of  probability,  and 
weighing  what  seemed  to  be  the 
chances.  Moreover,  the  speaker, 
beyond  a  doubt,  gave  it  with  reluc- 
tance, as  his  preferences  must  all 
have  been  in  favor  of  the  pulpit. 
This  very  funny  story,  however, 
would  never  have  risen  up  and  lived 


28  PHILLIPS  BROOKS, 

to  be  told  against  him,  if,  classical 
scholar  as  he  was,  he  had  not  been 
temporarily  oblivious  of  the  para- 
doxical case,  upwards  of  two  thou- 
sand years  ago,  of  a  certain 
somewhat  famous  man  in  Athens, 
named  Demosthenes.  The  wreck  of 
his  prophecy  only  furnishes  one 
more  proof,  what  unforeseen  and 
wonderful  things  a  great  personality, 
in  "dead  earnest,"  unaccountably 
manages  to  achieve. 

In  spite  of  the  well-meant  ad- 
vice of  the  sagacious  but  human 
President,  the  future  preacher  de- 
cided to  make  the  ministry  his  life- 
calling  ;  and,  in  order  to  prepare 
himself  for  it,  betook  himself  to  the 
Episcopal  Divinity  School  at 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


Alexandria,  Va.,  graduating  here 
in  1859.  Many  are  the  recollec- 
tions of  his  noble  character  and 
promise  cherished  by  those  who 
were  his  classmates  here.  Here 
it  was  that  he  wrote  his  first  sermon, 
on  "The  simplicity  that  is  in 
Christ,"  of  which  he  himself  —  his 
sense  of  humor  being  keen,  even 
when  he  himself  is  the  victim  —  re- 
counts that  a  classmate's  criticism 
of  it  was,  "  There  was  very  little 
simplicity  in  it,  and  no  Christ." 

If  graduating  from  college  is  the 
Saarbrtick  in  a  young  man's  career, 
graduating  from  his  professional 
school  is  his  Sedan.  The  perplexing 
question  of  establishing  himself, 
and  of  making  a  start,  then  confronts 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


him.  In  this  respect,  indeed,  the 
young  minister  has  the  advantage 
over  the  young  lawyer  and  the 
young  doctor.  Unless  the  latter  have 
some  means  of  subsistence  apart 
from  their  professions,  the  outlook 
for  them  is  disheartening,  indeed : 
in  all  probability,  it  will  be  years 
before  their  position  is  secure,  and 
their  practice  remunerative.  The 
"  starting "  clergyman,  on  the  other 
hand,  as  soon  as  he  has  secured  a 
parish  at  all,  at  once  secures  with 
it  a  living,  and  a  place  for  making 
himself  felt.  But  with  a  young 
man  of  large  possibilities,  how  great 
the  importance  where  and  what 
that  first  parish  is  !  If  it  be  off  by 
comparison  somewhere  in  the  back- 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


woods,  with  a  scant,  commonplace 
and  insignificant  congregation,  in 
all  human  likelihood,  to  be  sure,  he 
will  work  to  the  front,  and  win  the 
position  suited  to  his  powers,  in  time ; 
but  it  will  probably  take  him  years 
to  do  so,  and  when  the  opportun- 
ity shall  have  been  conquered, 
youth  will  have  fled,  and  the 
momentum  and  keenness  of  his  first 
onset  have  been  dulled.  The 
"  position  in  life  to  which  it  had 
pleased  Providence  to  call "  Phillips 
Brooks,  and  the  character  of  his 
friends  and  acquaintances,  were  such 
that  he  could  unquestionably  some- 
where have  obtained  a  parish  com- 
posed of  intelligent  people,  if  a  small 
and  comparatively  uninfluential  one  : 


32  PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 

indeed,  it  may  be  said  that  the 
intellectual  grade  of  nearly  all 
Episcopal  parishes  is  high.  But 
it  was  just  at  this  point  that  Dr.  Vin- 
ton  rendered  the  essential  service 
spoken  of  above.  He  had,  in  the 
meantime,  become  the  rector  of  the 
large,  wealthy  and  important  Church 
of  the  Advent,  in  Philadelphia ;  and 
through  his  influence  young  Brooks 
was  in  1859  made  his  assistant; 
thus,  without  tedious  preliminaries, 
at  once  stepping  into  a  first-rate 
position  in  a  great  and  populous 
city.  His  preaching  and  character 
at  once  made  themselves  felt,  and 
he  was  shortly  afterwards,  in  1860, 
installed  in  the  same  city  in  a  church 
of  his  own,  the  Holy  Trinity.  His 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


33 


fame  as  a  preacher  grew,  and  came 
to  extend  far  beyond  the  warm- 
hearted Quaker  City,  and  indeed 
beyond  its  State.  In  Philadelphia, 
he  remained  ten  years,  and  de- 
parted thence  greatly  regretted, 
leaving  behind  him  a  memory  such 
as  it  has  been  given  to  but  few 
men  to  create.  Whenever  he  re- 
turns thither  on  a  visit,  his  welcome 
resembles  that  of  the  prodigal  son. 
When  young  Brooks  was  seeking 
his  first  parish,  his  native  city  of 
Boston  —  in  regard  to  whom,  her 
critics  have  not  been  slow  in  point- 
ing out  how  frequently  she  has 
failed  to  know  her  greatest —  some- 
how or  other  did  not  seem  burning 
with  anxiety  to  furnish  him  a 


34 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


foothold ;  but  when  the  noise  of 
him  had  gone  abroad  in  the  land, 
and  it  began  to  be  said  that  Phillips 
Brooks  of  Philadelphia  was  the 
greatest  preacher  in  the  Episcopal 
Church,  if  not  indeed  in  the  country, 
Boston  —  if  somewhat  tardily  — 
opened  her  eyes  and  heart  (not  for- 
getting her  pocket),  and  concluded 
to  take  him  in.  Indeed  ;  it  has  been 
further  remarked  by  those  extremely 
keen-sighted  persons,  her  critics, 
that  after  driving  her  unrecognized 
geniuses  from  her  door  on  penalty 
if  need  be  of  starvation,  once  let 
them  become  of  mark  elsewhere, 
and  —  thrifty  Yankee  that  she  is 
with  eye  ever  roving  for  the 
"rising  sun"  —  she  hastens  to  wel- 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


35 


come  them  back.  In  1869  the 
rector  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  Philadel- 
phia, received  and  accepted  a  call 
to  and  became  the  rector  of 
Trinity  Church,  Boston. 

His  new  parish,  like  the  one  he 
left,  was  a  strong  and  influential 
one.  Its  church  edifice,  with  "  its 
battlemented  tower,  like  a  great 
castle  of  the  truth,"  was  at  that 
time  a  conspicuous  object  in  Sum- 
mer Street.  It  was  destroyed  in 
the  "great  fire"  of  1872.  The 
parish  at  once  proceeded  to  erect 
a  new  place  of  worship.  The  plans 
for  it  were  drawn  by  that  architect 
of  sweetness  and  light,  Mr.  H.  H. 
Richardson,  — whose  untimely  death 
was  a  loss  to  American  art,  —  and 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


by  all  odds  the  most  complete, 
thoroughly-built  and  beautiful  church- 
building  in  the  United  States,  with 
a  seating  capacity  of  over  two- 
thousand,  situated  on  Boylston 
Street  in  the  choicest  residen- 
tial portion  of  the  city,  and 
costing  over  a  million  dollars,  was 
the  result.  For  architectural  beauty 
it  will  compare  with  many  of  the 
famous  places  of  worship,  hallowed 
by  time  and  by  sacred  memories,  of 
green  England.  As  one  regards  it 
in  the  bright  morning  or  in  the  early 
evening  light,  fancy  adds  the  soften- 
ing of  outline  —  the  mellowing  and 
metamorphosis  of  tints  —  the  more 
daring  spread  of  the  ivies  —  that 
are  to  come  with  the  years,  and  the 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


37 


heart,  yielding  a  sigh  of  deep  con- 
tent, confesses  to  itself :  "It  is 
enough  ! " 

The  new  church  was  taken  pos- 
session of  in  1877,  and  from  that 
time  to  this  has  been  the  home  of 
Phillips  Brooks's  eloquence.  The 
audiences  it  has  contained  have 
grown  with  the  fame  of  its  rector, 
till  today  it  often  scarcely  suffices 
to  admit  the  throngs  that  seek  en- 
trance. In  1886  he  was  elected 
Assistant-Bishop  of  Pennsylvania, 
but  declined.  The  offer  of  a  Pro- 
fessorship in  Harvard  University 
was  also  at  one  time  made  him ; 
but  neither  did  he  accept  this. 

He  has  at  various  times  been  a 
quite  extensive  traveler,  having 


38  PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 

visited  no  inconsiderable  portion  of 
the  earth's  surface,  including  India, 
Palestine  and  Japan  :  it  may  be  added 
that  he  cherishes  the  hope  of  ex- 
tending his  travels  before  he  dies 
still  further.  In  England  his  visits 
have  been  numerous,  and  he  has 
made  many  friends  and  created  a 
deep  impression  there.  He  preached 
at  Westminister  Abbey  ;  at  both 
the  Universities ;  before  the 
Queen,  and  before  many  of  the 
first  people  in  the  Kingdom.  It 
was  and  is  the  opinion  of  Arch- 
deacon Farrar,  that  his  equal  as  a 
preacher  and  as  a  man  does  not 
exist  amongst  the  clergy  of  the 
English  Church. 

At  the  death  of  Bishop  Paddock  in 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


1891,    he    was    almost    unanimously 
elected     Bishop     in    his     stead     by 
the  Diocese  of  Massachusetts.      Ac- 
cording to  the  very  singular,  and  it 
is  thought  wholly  unprecedented,  ar- 
rangement existing  in  the  American 
Episcopal  Church,    however,  in  that 
church  a  diocese   practically  cannot 
elect  its  own  bishop,  the  election  not 
being    valid    until   it   has   been    rati- 
fied by  a  majority  of  all  the  bishops 
in     the     Church.      The     objections 
urged  against  him,  the  long  contest 
over   the   matter,  and  all  the  sorry 
tale      of      innuendo,     recrimination 
and  partisan   strife,  need  not  be  re- 
counted   here.      They   are   fresh    in 
the     minds     of     all,   and    are    now 
happily  ended.     Even    as    you    are 


40  PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 

reading  this  little  book  its  title  has 
been  justified,  and  Phillips  Brooks  is 
in  fact  Bishop  of  his  native  State. 


THE  PREACHER. 


III. 

THE  PREACHER. 

ONE  need  not  be  very  far  ad- 
vanced in  life  to  remember 
the  time  when  Curtis,  and  Willis,  and 
Emerson,  and  Lowell,  —  and  many 
another  illustrious  name  of  that 
mighty  generation  of  writers  and 
speakers,  of  which  today  the  sur- 
vivors are,  alas !  so  few, — were  utter- 
ing their  philippics  against  the 
materiality  and  sordidness  of  Ameri- 
can life.  American  life,  indeed,  has 


44 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


advanced  since  then  at  a  giant's 
pace ;  it  has  expanded  all  round ; 
since  its  birth,  money  was  never 
held  by  it  in  so  high  esteem  as 
now ;  but  it  has  grown  in  other 
ways,  too.  It  is  not  as  yet  much 
recognized,  in  our  crude  and  semi- 
barbaric  day,  that,  great  as  is  its 
power,  money  does  not  give  the 
best  things,  —  though  that  is  the 
fact,  seen  to  be  such  by  the  more 
civilized  and  sharpest  minds.  It  is 
an  excellent  adjunct  and  accompani- 
ment of  the  best,  but  furnishes  a 
poor  substitute  for  it.  Did  money, 
for  instance,  ever  yet  win  a  heart  ? 
Can  it  of  itself  bring  happiness  ? 
Will  it  command  health  ?  Is  any- 
thing it  ever  bought  to  be  com- 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


45 


pared  with  the  joy  of  the  artist, 
who,  day  by  day,  sees  grow  in 
visible  embodiment  beneath  his  in- 
spired fingers  some  one  of  the  dreams 
amongst  which  his  soul  habitually 
dwells,  in  regions  the  world  wots 
not  of,  save  as  occasionally  he 
vouchsafes  it  a  token  from  them  ? 
With  the  measureless  content  of  an 
author,  as  he  pens  the  last  word 
of  a  work  that  he  knows  will 
move  the  hearts  and  decide  the 
actions  of  his  day,  and,  when  those 
who  make  his  day  shall  have  van- 
ished, move  hearts  and  influence 
destinies  yet  unborn  ?  What  within 
its  reach  is  comparable  with  the 
lofty  existence,  not  like  unto  that 
of  other  men,  passed  by  a  music- 


46  PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 

composer  —  by  Schumann,  for  in- 
stance —  amidst  celestial  harmonies, 
whereunto  only  his  ears,  and  those 
of  the  great  tone-gods,  are  privi- 
leged to  listen  ?  With  the  exultant 
sense  of  beneficent  power  that 
floods  and  fires  the  soul  of  a  great 
mistress  of  song  —  of  Christine  Nils- 
son,  say  —  as  she  stands  before 
three  thousands  of  her  fellow  men 
and  women,  and  knows  there  is  not 
a  tear  in  all  their  eyes,  a  drop  of 
blood  in  all  their  veins,  that  is  not 
her  slave  ?  Or  of  an  actor,  who 
focuses  the  hearts,  with  the  eyes 
and  ears,  of  box,  pit  and  gallery 
upon  the  quiver  of  an  eyelash,  the 
trembling  of  a  tone  ?  Or  of  an 
orator,  such  as  Kossuth,  or  Phillips 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


47 


or  Gough?  And  of  all  orators, 
what  one  can  be  likened  for  unique- 
ness of  position  (standing  as  he  does 
between  man  and  God),  for  dignity 
and  momentousness  of  the  issues 
involved,  to  the  orator  of  the  pul- 
pit—  the  preacher? 

As  a  preacher  —  and  that,  beyond 
a  doubt,  is  the  capacity  in  which 
he  is  greatest  —  the  quality  that,  in 
the  writer's  opinion,  first  strikes  all 
Phillips  Brooks' s  hearers,  is  what 
may  perhaps  be  termed,  for  lack  of 
a  better  word,  his  copiousness.  He 
is  like  a  colossal  reservoir,  that 
seems  full  almost  to  bursting,  and 
well-nigh  unable  to  restrain  what  it 
contains.  He  takes  his  place  in 
the  pulpit,  and  opens  his  mouth, 


48 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


and  without  any  accompaniment  of 
manner  (whatever  may  be  the  case 
with  the  matter)  specially  appro* 
priate  to  an  exordium,  just  be- 
gins —  right  in  the  middle,  as  it 
were.  The  parting  of  his  lips 
seems  like  the  bursting  open  of  a 
safety-valve  by  the  seething  thoughts 
and  words  behind,  and  out  they 
rush,  so  hot  in  their  chase  the  one 
of  the  other,  that  at  times  they  ap- 
pear to  be  almost  side  by  side ;  and 
from  then  till  the  moment  when  he 
stops,  with  equal  abruptness,  he 
simply  pours  —  pours  —  pours  !  out  — 
out  —  out!  It  seems  as  if  he  could 
not  possibly  say  enough,  or  begin 
to  express  what  he  has  to  utter. 
Just  as  in  his  writing,  he  is  super- 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


49 


latively  and  superbly  reckless  in 
lavishing  his  treasures  —  apparently 
feeling  that  the  difficulty  is,  not  to 
find  what  to  say,  but  to  use  a  tithe 
of  the  material  that  throngs  and 
beats  and  surges  to  be  let  out. 
He  gives  the  best  he  has ;  never 
speaking,  any  more  than  writing, 
down  to  the  supposed  requirements 
of  auditors  only  partially  developed  ; 
not  stopping  to  sort,  but  flinging 
his  words  out  as  they  come,  satis- 
fied that  each  hearer  will  appro- 
priate what  belongs  to  him,  and  all 
will  get  something.  Great  torrents 
and  waves,  as  it  were,  of  appeal 
and  aspiration  and  eloquence  and 
thought  rise  and  fall,  and  whirl  and 
eddy,  throughout  the  church,  till  they 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


seem  to  become  almost  visible  and 
tangible,  and  to  beat  upon  the  eyes 
and  foreheads  of  his  hearers  as* 
they  do  against  their  hearts.  The 
audience,  caught  in  the  rush  and 
swing  of  this  fervid  oratory,  feel  as 
if  they  were  rocked  upon  the  im- 
passioned bosom  of  an  ocean  of 
inspired  speech.  It  is  soul  speak- 
ing to  soul.  Indeed,  you  have  to 
pay  the  closest  attention,  and  catch 
all  he  says  only  with  difficulty.  So 
rapid  and  thronging  is  his  utter- 
ance that,  as  is  well  known,  the 
English  reporters,  used  to  a  more 
leisurely  eloquence,  were  at  first 
perplexe,d  and  even  utterly  baffled 
in  their  efforts  at  "taking"  him, 
and  finally  succeeded  in  achieving 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


the  ability  to  reach  that  end  only 
by  a  sort  of  special  education,  ob- 
tained through  chasing  his  excep- 
tionally "  whirling  words."  It  is  to 
be  hoped,  by  the  way,  this  practice 
may  have  had  some  appreciable 
effect  towards  reforming  the  pro- 
fession of  tachygraphy  in  Great  Bri- 
tain. Bishop  Brooks's  oratory  has 
been  not  inaptly  compared  to  the 
headlong  rush  of  an  express-train. 

In  point  of  fact,  coolly  consid- 
ered, Phillips  Brooks  exhibits  as  a 
preacher  well-nigh  every  fault  of 
delivery :  but  he  does  not  leave  you 
time  to  criticise.  There  are  in 
him  a  tremendous  vitality,  a  vigor, 
an  exhaustlessness,  an  irresistible 
onset  of  confident  and  ardent  ear- 


52  PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 

nestness,  that,  whether  you  will  or 
not,  take  you  clean  off  your  feet, 
and  whirl  you  along  —  at  their 
mercy,  but  pleased,  and  it  is  to  be 
hoped  benefited.  It  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  when  Samuel 
Morley  was  spending  three  months 
in  the  United  States,  he  stayed  over 
a  second  Sunday  in  Boston  in  order 
to  hear  Phillips  Brooks  preach 
again. 

As  to  the  audiences  attracted  in 
his  native  city  and  elsewhere  by 
this  great  American  Preacher,  they 
are  composed  of  persons  by  no 
means  all  Episcopalians,  but  drawn 
from  almost  every  denomination  — 
some,  indeed,  having  no  very  dis- 
tinct religious  affiliation  or  belief  of 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS.  53 

any  kind.  It  seems  to  have  been 
the  case  with  all  the  historic  preach- 
ers that  their  power  has  sufficed  to 
break  the  bonds  of  denomination  — 
thus  causing  something  like  a  re- 
turn to  the  primitive  simplicity  — 
and  of  unbelief.  There  is  something 
elemental  about  pulpit  utterances 
of  the  first  rank :  they  are  the 
lava-stream  melting  and  transfusing 
all  it  touches.  One  who  has  made 
a  study  of  the  matter  is  forced  to 
confess  that  there  is  good  reason 
for  thinking  that  no  inconsiderable 
number  of  those  who  go  to  hear 
Phillips  Brooks  go,  less  for  the  sake 
of  any  religious  instruction  or  bene- 
fit to  be  received,  or  because  they 
believe  what  the  preacher  says, 


54  PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 

than  for  the  simple  purpose  of  en- 
joying his  oratory  —  just  as  they 
would  go  to  a  public  place  of 
amusement  (a  concert,  for  in- 
stance), or  to  any  literary  enter- 
tainment. Neither  probably  is 
this  exceptional  in  his  case.  It  is 
deeply  to  be  regretted ;  but  looking 
at  the  subject  inductively,  as  a 
matter  simply  of  observation  and 
experience,  one  is  compelled  to 
recognize  the  fact.  This  is  unfor- 
tunately a  sceptical  and  irreligious 
age,  though  Americans  notoriously 
admire  a  man  who  preeminently 
"understands  his  business,"  and 
performs  it  perfectly.  Doubtless, 
Chrysostom  never  converted  all  his 
hearers. 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


55 


If,  however,  any  amongst  the 
audience  do  not  believe  what  the 
preacher  says,  it  is  simply  impos- 
sible for  any  man,  woman  or  child 
not  to  believe  that  the  preacher  be- 
lieves it.  At  those  wonderful  noon- 
day services  in  Trinity  Church, 
New  York,  last  year,  not  one  of 
those  clear-headed  breathlessly-at- 
tentive Wall  -  Street  operators  — 
judges  of  men  trained  in  perhaps 
the  most  sceptical  school  on  earth, 
and  some  of  them  the  kings  and 
princes  of  finance  —  but  knew  in 
his  heart  by  intuition  infallible  that 
the  speaker  before  them  was  a 
kingly  man,  who  spoke  kingly  from 
his  soul,  and  simply  could  not  lie, 
palter,  or  pretend.  They  might 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


not  in  all  cases  or  at  all  points  be 
able  to  understand  him,  but  they 
instinctively  knew  him  to  be  true. 
And  after  all  it  is  impossible  to 
say  what  chords  are  genuinely 
touched,  what  natures  wakened,  by 
pulpit  oratory,  in  spite  of  them- 
selves, and  sometimes  even  to  their 
own  hearts  unconfessed.  Only  He 
who  knows  all  knows  this  too.  At 
any  moment  he  who  goes  to  listen 
from  curiosity  or  to  enjoy  may  find 
his  conscience  stung  beyond  con- 
trol. 

Of  the   English  clergy   and  their 
sermons  the  verse  runs  — 
"  They  make  the  best  and  preach  the  worst." 

Charles    Kingsley    in    the    pulpit 
rested    his    arm    upon    or    grasped 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


57 


the  cushion,  meaning  to  avoid  ges- 
ticulation ;  but  as  he  became  aroused, 
his  eye  kindled,  his  whole  frame 
vibrated,  and  with  his  right  hand 
he  made  a  curious  gesture  —  which 
he  seemed  unconscious  of  and  un- 
able to  restrain — the  ringers  moving 
with  a  hovering  motion  like  a  hawk 
about  to  swoop  upon  its  prey.  Car- 
dinal Newman  in  the  pulpit  re- 
sembles a  tall,  unimpassioned,  though 
piercingly  earnest  spectre  from  an- 
other world,  with  a  silvery  voice. 
Of  Whitefield  indeed  Southey  said 
his  "  elocution  was  perfect " ;  he 
used  to  preach  each  sermon  over 
and  over  again,  till  every  inflection 
and  gesture  became  perfect.  Frank- 
lin said  he  could  always  tell  on 


5 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


hearing  him,  from  the  stage  of  its 
finish,  how  new  the  sermon  was. 
Bossuet's  delivery  was  dignified  yet 
vehement.  Jonathan  Edwards  stood 
motionless  in  the  pulpit,  one  hand 
resting  on  it,  and  the  other  holding 
up  to  his  eyes  his  little  closely- 
written  manuscript  from  which  he 
read.  The  first  sermon  Whitefield 
preached  after  ordination  to  the 
diaconate  drove  fifteen  people  in- 
sane with  fright.  When  Edwards 
preached  the  congregation  at  times 
rose  to  its  feet  unable  to  remain 
sitting,  and  people  fainted.  Great 
men  are  great  in  spite  of  their 
faults.  Kingsley  had  an  impedi- 
ment in  his  speech,  —  which  disap- 
peared however  as  soon  as  he  began 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS.  59 

to  speak  in  the  pulpit.  Whitefield  had 
a  cast  in  one  of  his  eyes.  Bossuet's 
voice  was  too  shrill.  All  these 
"men  succeeded  as  preachers,  as 
Robertson  succeeded,  as  Brooks  suc- 
ceeds, because  they  were  on  fire 
with  holiness  to  the  bottom  of  their 
being,  and  back  of  their  words  lay 
their  lives. 


THE    AUTHOR. 


IV. 

THE   AUTHOR. 

T  Tf  TITH  perhaps  the  single  excep- 
*  "  tion  of  two  ventures  in  verse 
and  of  his  dispassionate  paper  on 
"  The  Episcopal  Church "  in  the 
"  Memorial  History  of  Boston," 
Bishop  Brooks's  claims  to  be  con- 
sidered as  an  author  rest  upon  his 
published  Sermons,  Lectures,  and 
Addresses.  Though  of  course  these 
were  written  for  the  purpose  of  be- 
ing delivered,  since  they  have  been 
made  into  printed  books  and  given 
to  the  public,  they  may  not  improperly 


64  PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 

be  regarded  as  belonging  to  the  prov- 
ince of  authorship.  Indeed,  it  might 
with  some  show  of  justice  be  urged 
that,  when  he  writes  any  of  his  ser- 
mons or  addresses,  he  is  in  that 
act  a  writer — it  being  only  when 
he  mounts  the  pulpit  or  the  plat- 
form to  pronounce  them,  that  he 
becomes  the  preacher. 

Amongst  the  strong  and  well-re- 
membered impressions  that  come 
back  to  one,  on  turning  over  the 
leaves  of  the  three  volumes  of  Ser- 
mons, of  the  Yale  College  and  of 
the  Bohlen  Lectures,  and  of 
the  rest,  perhaps  the  best-remem- 
bered and  strongest  is  that  of  rich 
profusion.  Simile,  metaphor,  insight ; 
historic,  scientific,  theological  and 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS.  65 

literary  allusion  ;  observation  ;  a  deep 
knowledge  of  human  nature  —  all  the 
wealth  of  an  opulent  scholarship  and 
of  a  teeming  brain  ;  all  the  riches  of 
an  overflowing  heart  —  are  proffered 
without  reserve.  His  learning  is 
worn  as  a  suit  of  mail-armor,  never 
cramping  or  stiffening  the  natural 
play  of  his  members.  Pedantic  he 
never  is ;  and  whenever  he  employs 
what  may  perhaps  be  styled  "library- 
facts,"  they  have  become  delightfully 
metamorphosed  :  he  has  put  more  of 
himself  into  the  statement  than  there 
is  of  the  facts.  Indeed  he  often 
plays  with  them  —  which  Goethe 
thought  to  be  a  sign  of  the  master. 
Especially  apt,  effective  and  beautiful 
are  his  illustrations,  though  they  are 


66  PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 

never  used  for  effect,  but  only  as 
they  should  be  to  illustrate.  Take 
one,  where  a  hundred  might  be 
given  : 

"  We  are  like  southern  plants, 
taken  up  to  a  northern  climate  and 
planted  in  a  northern  soil.  They 
grow  there,  but  they  are  always 
failing  of  their  flowers.  The  poor 
exiled  shrub  dreams  by  a  native 
longing  of  a  splendid  blossom  which 
it  has  never  seen,  but  it  is  dimly 
conscious  that  it  ought  somehow  to 
produce.  It  feels  the  flower  which 
it  has  not  strength  to  make  in  the 
half-chilled  but  still  genuine  juices 
of  its  southern  nature.  That  is  the 
way  in  which  the  ideal  life,  the 
life  of  full  completions,  haunts  us  all." 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS.  6/ 

Such  passages  as  this  surely  are 
what  even  an  adversary  terms,  in 
the  sermons  of  Luther,  "oasis,  pleins 
de  fratcheur  et  de  potsie,  des  pensfas 
nobles  et  dtlicates,  des  mouvements 
pathethiques  et  affectueux." 

His  pages  bristle  with  quotable 
expressions,  phrases  and  sentences 
of  the  most  striking  aptness.  As 
for  example :  "  Faith  is  the  king's 
knowledge  of  his  own  kingship." 
"A  scramble  for  adherents  rather 
than  a  Christ-like  love  for  souls." 
"  That  first  step  which  costs,  we 
know,  cannot  be  too  costly,  if  it 
starts  the  enterprise  aright." 

Reference  has  been  made,  in  a  pre- 
vious chapter,  to  his  never  writing 
down  to  the  level  of  his  readers.  In 


68  PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 

addresses  composed  for  delivery  be- 
fore students,   theological   or   other, 
niggardliness  of  learning  would   not 
perhaps   be    expected:    but    in    the 
Sermons,  addressed  to  miscellaneous 
audiences,  the  case  is  not  far  from 
being   as   bad.     His   feeling   in   the 
matter  would  seem  to  be,  it  is  best  to 
give  —  only  give:  if  each   one   does 
not  grasp  it   all,  he  will  some:  and 
the  attempt  to  grasp  —  the  attitude  of 
reaching  up  —  the  effort  to  compre- 
hend what  one  has  not  as  yet  thor- 
oughly mastered  —  is  of  itself  helpful 
(much  preferable  to  the  supine  and 
indolent  mental  posture  of  one  who 
is  quite  on  the  level  of,  or   even   a 
little  above,  what  he  reads).   It  is  very 
noticeable  in  him  that,  whether  writ- 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS.  69 

ing  or  speaking,  he  never  seems  satis- 
fied till  the  note  struck  is  the  octave- 
note — that  view  of  the  matter  in  hand 
which  is  the  highest  his  thought  and 
life  have  yielded  him  —  and  every  sub- 
ject he  handles  he  seeks  to  lead  up  and 
attach  to  the  loftiest  he  knows  :  he  is 
never  willing  to  rest  till  he  has 
reached  that  theme.  A  loyal  knight, 
ever  alert  to  duty.  Dr.  Lyman  Abbott 
has  recently  remarked  of  him  that 
he  always  preaches :  any  of  his  after- 
dinner  speeches  he  might  use  the 
next  Sunday  in  his  pulpit. 

Not  only  is  he  complex,  and  instead 
of  coming  down  to  his  readers  invites 
them  to  come  up  to  him  :  he  is  never 
afraid  of  giving  full  measure,  heaped 
up  and  running  over.  Into  every 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


address  or  chapter  he  puts  material 
enough  to  make,  if  more  thriftily 
spread  out,  four  highly  respectable 
ones.  Every  page  scintillates  with 
gems,  not  only  gathered  from  widely- 
distant  quarters  of  thought  and  of 
feeling,  but  packed  into  the  smallest 
space.  A  discourse  of  his  is  like  the 
"  dark  rich  cloth  bursting  out  into 
jewels  from  within,"  which  serves 
him  as  an  illustration  in  one  of  his 
sermons.  He  may  be  said  to  compose 
royally,  as  who  has  the  storehouse  of 
the  Universe  and  of  Eternity  behind 
him,  and  nothing  is  further  from 
his  thoughts  than  an  intellectual 
economy.  Indeed,  his  resources  and 
the  activity  of  his  brain  are  such, 
that  it  is  probably  easier  for  him 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


to    lavish     than     to    withhold    and 
dilute. 

It  must  be  confessed,  he  knows 
how  to  feel  his  way  to  the  deep 
places  of  the  human  heart  led  by 
an  instinct  infallible,  and  upon  the 
corrupt  and  sore  spots  of  the  soul 
he  lays  the  renovating  and  healing 
touch  of  a  master.  Carlyle,  speak- 
ing of  what  used  to  be  called  "bil- 
lowy Chalmerian  prose,"  says  that 
"  no  preacher  ever  went  so  into 
one's  heart"  as  Dr.  Chalmers  —  but 
when  did  Carlyle  ever  state  an  opin- 
ion moderately  ?  In  one  of  the 
Yale  Lectures,  if  the  writer  re- 
members the  place  correctly,  Brooks 
points  out  to  his  hearers,  young 
men  preparing  for  the  Christian 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


ministry  (and,  through  them,  to 
students  of  religion  at  large),  how 
wondrous  and  confirming,  to  the 
young  priest  who  goes  from  his 
school  out  into  life,  is  the  revela- 
tion of  finding  that,  the  longer  he 
lives,  and  the  deeper  he  sees  into 
the  surrounding  mystery  of  things, 
the  more  are  the  teachings  of  the 
Master  and  of  the  wise  ones,  which 
he  studied  during  his  years  of  pre- 
paration and  accepted  largely  on 
trust,  corroborated  by  the  world, 
the  more  are  they  discovered  to  be 
applicable  in.  the  way  of  alleviation 
to  the  world.  This  revelation  has 
clearly  been  made  to  him,  —  and  he 
is  moreover  to  be  credited  with 
noticeable  originality  of  insight  and 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


73 


of  application.  The  "  Lectures  on 
Tolerance,"  for  instance  —  mere 
suggestion,  instead  of  the  elaborate 
work  on  the  subject  that  would  have 
been  so  welcome,  and  he  would  have 
written  so  well,  though  they  are  — 
are  of  marked  originality.  Such 
production  as  this  it  is,  that  causes 
Dr.  Abbott  to  indulge  in  the  shrewd 
conjecture  that  Phillips  Brooks  thinks 
even  more  than  he  studies  —  adding 
that  he  entertains  the  suspicion  that 
he  prays.  In  no  sermons  recalled 
by  the  writer  at  this  moment,  are 
there  in  proportion  to  the  whole  a 
larger  number  that,  once  read, 
stamp  themselves  ineffaceably  and 
forever  upon  the  memory  and 
heart,  and  are  found  to  come  up, 


74  PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 

throughout  life  —  like  some  of  Rob- 
ertson's, and  one  or  two  of  the  late 
Dr.  George  Putnam's — alike  in 
our  hours  of  revery  and  of  crisis, 
as  it  were,  "with  healing  on  their 
wings."  It  seems  hardly  too  much 
to  say  that,  in  the  bitterest  advers- 
ity or  affliction,  he  who  has  ever 
read  the  sermon  on  the  "  Consola- 
tions of  God"  will  have  had  done 
for  him  the  utmost  that  human 
means  afford. 

His  style  is  fitted  for  and  at  once 
suggests  his  delivery :  the  same 
abrupt  start,  quick  getting  under  head- 
way, and  sustained  and  out-pouring 
rush.  It  is  like  a  high-bred  racer : 
there  is  so  much  vitality  in  it,  its  speed 
cannot  be  kept  down.  Indeed,  when- 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


75 


ever  you  take  up  an  address  of  which 
you  do  not  know  though  you  may 
begin  to  suspect  the  author,  as  soon 
as  beneath  the  growing  statement 
you  hear  the  gathering  rush  you  may 
feel  sure  you  are  reading  Phillips 
Brooks.  The  only  prose  of  his  the 
writer  remembers  that  lacks  this 
decisive  trait  is  the  "  Memorial  His- 
tory "  chapter  already  referred  to 
— without  the  signature  it  would 
never  be  known  as  his.  Whatever  he 
writes  is  written  to  be  spoken.  He  has 
the  extemporaneous  instinct.  The 
main  thought  or  feeling  he  wishes  to 
express  is  jumped  at  at  once,  and 
struck  out  first,  leaving  the  details  to 
fall  into  place  afterwards.  As  Person 
said  of  Charles  James  Fox,  "he 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


throws  himself  into  the  middle  of  his 
sentences,  and  leaves  it  to  Almighty 
God  to  get  him  out  again."  He  often 
feels  several  times  for  the  exact 
word  he  wants,  just  as  one  does  in 
speaking,  though  each  time  his  word 
of  tentation  is  almost  a  blow.  Nor 
does  he  make  any  extensive  experi- 
ments in  the  way  of  variety  of  man- 
ner. Lowell,  to  take  a  single 
instance,  exhibited  several  quite  dis- 
tinct styles  or  veins,  but  Brooks  is 
always  Brooks  —  the  same  unchanged 
instantly-recognizable  quality  wher- 
ever met  with.  It  is  as  if,  having  in 
the  first  place  carefully  studied  a 
thing  and  learned  to  do  it  well,  he  had 
never  cared  to  bother  with  excursions 
after  universality  of  form,  but  just 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


77 


goes   on   doing  the  thing  over  and 
over  again. 

His  vocabulary  is  copious,  pithy  and 
choice.  His  sentences  are  short; 
each  sentence  and  phrase  contains  its 
idea  rolled  into  a  pellet ;  each  pre- 
sents a  totally  new  idea,  generally 
drawn  from  a  source  widely-different 
from  the  last.  They  follow  each 
other  in  almost  breathless  suc- 
cession, till  all  the  marvelous  com- 
plexity of  the  subject  he  is  presenting 
has  been  built  and  welded  together 
and  driven  home. 


WHAT  HE  STANDS  FOR  IN 

THE   EPISCOPAL 

CHURCH. 


V. 

WHAT  HE  STANDS  FOR  TODAY. 

IS    it     asked,    what   does    Phillips 
Brooks  stand  for   today    in    the 
"  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the 
United  States  of  America  "  ? 

It  may  be  answered  :  Phillips  Brooks 
in  any  church  stands  first  and  fore- 
most for  Jesus  Christ,  and  him  cruci- 
fied —  behind  him  the  Father  — with 
both  the  Spirit.  If  we,  in  the  words 
of  Archdeacon  Farrar,  when  speaking 
of  him,  "want  to  know  something  of 


82  PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 

Christianity  as  Christ  taught  it,  be- 
fore it  was  corrupted,"  we  may  turn 
to  him. 

He  believes,  above  all  things,  as 
regards  both  the  Founder  and  the 
preachers  of  Christianity,  in  person- 
ality ;  in  life  rather  than  doctrine  ;  in 
giving  "not  an  argument  but  a 
man."  He  says  :  "  If  there  has  been 
one  change  which  above  all  others 
has  altered  our  modern  Christianity 
from  what  the  Christian  religion  was 
in  apostolic  times,  I  think  beyond  a 
doubt  it  must  be  this,  the  substitution 
of  a  belief  in  doctrines  for  loyalty  to 
a  person  as  the  essence  and  the  test 
of  Christian  life.  .  .  [The  gospels] 
had  no  creed  but  Christ.  Christ  was 
their  creed."  "  Not  from  simple  brain 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


to  simple  brain,  as  the  reasoning  of 
Euclid  comes  to  its  students,  but 
from  total  character  to  total  charac- 
ter, comes  the  New  Testament  from 
God  to  men."  Again:  "The  king 
must  go  with  his  counsellors  at  his 
side  and  his  army  at  his  back,  or  he 
makes  no  conquest.  The  intellect 
must  be  surrounded  by  the  richness 
of  the  affections  and  backed  by  the 
power  of  the  will,  or  it  attains  no  per- 
fect truth."  "  The  method  which  in- 
cludes all  other  methods  must  be  in 
his  [the  preacher's]  own  manhood,  in 
his  character,  in  his  being  such  a 
man,  and  so  apprehending  truth  him- 
self, that  truth  through  him  can  come 
to  other  men."  This  comprehension 
or  intuition  of  the  supremacy  of  per- 


84  PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 

sonality,  for  instance,  it  is  that  forces 
him,  in  his  address  upon  "  Biography," 
delivered  at  Phillips  Exeter  Academy, 
to  confess  that  he  would  rather  have 
written  a  great  biography  than  any 
other  great  book,  and  that  if  he  were 
going  to  be  a  painter  he  would  by  pre- 
ference paint  portraits.  Of  his  own 
words  it  has  been  said  that,  like  the 
Master's,  they  themselves  "  are  spirit 
and  are  life." 

To  him,  again,  "religion  presents 
itself  .  .  .  as  an  elemental  life  in 
which  the  soul  of  man  comes  into 
very  direct  and  close  communion 
with  the  soul  of  God."  Everywhere 
his  utterances,  his  character,  and  his 
life  are  full  of  this.  In  the  sermon 
upon  the  "Knowledge  of  God,"  he 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS.  85 

points  out  how  Christ  "  knew  God. 
He  sent  back  adoration,  trust,  exu- 
berant love  in  answer  to  the  recog- 
nized care  which  was  always  pouring 
itself  upon  him."  This  is  his  ideal 
for  man.  He  impresses  it  upon  the 
students  whom  he  seeks  to  help ;  he 
inculcates  it  in  his  congregations  ;  he 
unconsciously  illustrates  it  in  his 
career. 

Personality  first,  uttering  itself  in 
fullness  and  perfection  of  life.  Above 
all  is  the  Father.  Be  led  by  the 
Spirit  to  Christ,  and  "  hid  with  Christ 
in  God"  —  be  joined  to  Him  —  let 
His  life  flow  through  you,  and  sup- 
ply and  impel  and  restrain  and  guide 
you :  that  is  the  only  thing.  It 
renders  all  else  superfluous.  After 


86  PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 

that,     indeed,    all     else    follows     of 
itself. 

As  God  is  our  Father,  so  are  all 
men  our  brothers.     Nothing  human 
is  to  be  accounted  foreign  or  alien  to 
us.     We   are   to   love   even    infidels 
and      pagans  —  Buddhists,     Moham- 
medans,  and  the  worshipers  of  Hel- 
lenic Zeus  —  as  well  as  the  Christians 
of   sects   other   than   ours.     Around 
each    one   of   us  lie  four  concentric 
circles  :  the  nearest  encloses  the  par- 
ticular church  to  which  he  belongs ; 
the  next  distant,  the  whole  body  of 
Christians  ;  the  one  after  that,  those 
who  cherish  any  religious  belief  what- 
ever ;    the   last,   all    mankind,    even 
those  with    no  religion    at    all.     Of 
these     four,     the     first  —  the     one 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


enclosing  the  particular  church  to 
which  a  man  belongs  —  "  nestles  to 
its  centre  with  a  warmth  of  sympathy 
which  the  others  do  not  know:"  and 
there,  stated  in  his  own  words,  lies 
Phillips  Brooks's  Churchmanship. 

He  is,  it  may  be  said,  in  the  first 
place,  a  son  of  God  at  first  hand ; 
never  out  of  the  presence  or  the 
thought  of  his  Father ;  in  direct  and 
intimate  relation  with  Him;  receiving 
his  inspiration  and  credentials  imme- 
diately from  His  hand :  and  as  he  is, 
so  would  he  have  others  be.  There 
is  no  need  for  the  priest  to  over- 
emphasize himself,  his  machinery,  or 
his  methods.  He  is  not  infallible  ;  he 
is  subject  to  doubt,  to  error,  to  growth, 
the  same  as  any  other  man,  and  would 


88  PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 

do  better  never  to  feel  hesitation  in 
saying  so.  To  the  men  and  women  of 
his  congregation,  whom  he  has  so 
often  instructed  from  the  pulpit,  he 
often  finds  himself  in  need  to  come  for 
instruction  and  help  himself.  He  is 
here,  not  to  obtrude  himself,  but  only 
to  do  what  he  can  towards  helping 
his  fellow  men  put  and  keep  them- 
selves in  the  same  direct,  original 
communication  with  God  that  he  en- 
joys, and  become  his  brothers  indeed. 
He  is  simply  a  window  through  which 
the  Light  may  be  seen  ;  merely  a  door 
by  which  men  may  enter  in.  That  it 
is  his  privilege  to  be :  beyond  that  he 
may  not  hope  nor  ask. 

Different  sects  are  necessitated  by 
the  very  constitution  of  human  nature. 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS  89 

They  have  always  existed,  and  always 
will  exist.  We  talk  of  the  "  unity  of 
faith,"  but  it  never  was  nor  ever  will 
be  possible  for  Christianity  to  be  in 
all  respects  a  homogeneous  unit.  One 
in  impulse,  one  in  purity,  one  in  "  full- 
ness and  perfection  of  life,"  in- 
deed, it  may  be  —  that  is,  one  at 
heart  —  but  in  matters  of  the  head, 
of  opinion,  of  doctrine,  of  organiza- 
tion, it  must  always  contain  shades 
of  variance.  One  who  has  reached  the 
bottom  (or  top)  of  things,  and  is 
united  with  God,  will  recognize  others 
who  are  in  like  manner  united.  He 
will  feel  that  they  may  be  so  united, 
and  yet  differ  with  him  in  doctrine  or 
denomination ;  he  will  respect  and 
entertain  tolerance  for  their  opinions  ; 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


since  these  are  something  decided, 
and  so  better  than  mere  indifference, 
he  will,  up  to  a  certain  point,  even 
admire  them  for  holding  them,  and 
rejoice  that  they  do  so.  "The  more 
men  you  honor  the  more  cisterns  you 
have  to  draw  from."  He  may  argue 
with  them  and  seek  to  arouse  their 
reason  to  accept  his  views  :  he  will 
never  exclude,  or  scorn,  or  seek  to 
coerce  them.  Beyond  a  doubt,  he 
may  preach  in  their  pulpits  (as  Phillips 
Brooks  himself  has  done).  Different 
men  will  always  see  different  aspects 
in  the  same  thing  When  this  is  a 
very  large  and  complex  and  con- 
stantly-unfolding thing  —  as  in  its 
applications  is  Christianity  —  no  one 
body  of  observers  grasps  it  all.  No 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS.  91 

single  denomination  can  appropriate 
all  the  truth  in  Christianity.  For 
those  who  do  not  regard  it  in  all  its 
details  just  as  we  do,  we  should  rejoice 
that  other  denominations  exist,  to 
which  they  may  resort.  Only  an 
aggregation  of  progressing  denomina- 
tions can  hope  to  represent  or  master 
it  all. 

And  yet  in  essentials  and  at  bottom 
Christianity  may  be  comprehended 
in  "  a  few  first  large  truths."  "  Every 
truth  is  necessary  to  man  which  is 
necessary  to  righteousness,  and  no 
truth  is  necessary  to  man  which  is 
not  necessary  to  righteousness." 
"  There  are  excrescences  upon  the 
faith  which  puzzle  and  bewilder  men 
and  make  them  think  themselves  un- 


92 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


believers  when  their  hearts  are  really 
faithful.  Such  excrescences  must  be 
cast  away." 

As  to  the  future  life,  and  punish- 
ment —  "  such  as  God  is  can  punish 
such  as  men  are  for  nothing  except 
wickedness  :  honestly  mistaken  opin- 
ions are  not  wicked."  "Error  is  not 
guilt."  "Whatever  comes  to  any 
man  in  the  other  life  will  come  be- 
cause it  must  come,  because  nothing 
else  could  come  to  such  a  man  as  he 
is."  "  Insincerity  (whether  it  profess 
to  hold  what  we  think  is  false  or  what 
we  think  is  true),  cant,  selfishness, 
deception  of  one's  self  or  of  other 
people,  cruelty,  prejudice, —  these  are 
the  things  with  which  the  Church 
ought  to  be  a  great  deal  more  angry 


PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


93 


than  she  is.  The  anger  which  she  is 
ready  to  expend  upon  a  misbeliever 
ought  to  be  poured  out  on  these." 

What  Phillips  Brooks  stands  for 
in  the  "  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
of  America  "  is  thus  seen  to  be  some- 
thing at  bottom  very  simple;  very 
broad,  catholic,  lofty  and  grand ;  and, 
it  must  be  confessed,  it  seems  very 
like  the  Truth. 

THE   END. 


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